High Court Turns Down Mo. Teacher's Appeal Over Firing

The U.S. Supreme Court last week refused to hear the appeal of
Cecilia "Cissy" Lacks, the Missouri teacher fired for allowing her
students to use profanity in their creative-writing assignments.

The high court's March 8 action was the end of the legal line for
Ms. Lacks, a tenured teacher who was fired in 1995. The
Ferguson-Florissant school district had said she failed to enforce the
student-discipline code's prohibition against profane language.

Ms. Lacks had argued that she was never put on notice that her
unconventional teaching methods were unacceptable to the 10,000-student
district in suburban St. Louis. She also alleged that she was a victim
of racial discrimination. She is white, and the administrators who
reviewed her employment were black.

Her legal battle was backed by a coalition that included the
National Education Association, the National Council of Teachers of
English, and the PEN American Center, a New York City-based writers'
association that defends freedom of expression. The coalition told the
high court there was considerable confusion in federal law regarding
the rights of public school teachers to use controversial materials and
methods in the classroom.

"This case is important to teachers throughout the country," said a
friend-of-the-court brief filed by the coalition in support of Ms.
Lacks. "Teachers and administrators in many jurisdictions around the
country are unclear about the rules governing controversial materials
and about the latitude that students and teachers have in the
give-and-take of classroom discussion."

Ms. Lacks was a 22-year veteran in the district when she allowed her
Berkeley High School students to use street language in short plays
they wrote for a class assignment.

The plays dealt with sex, teenage pregnancy, gangs, and drugs and
included obscenities, street jargon, and "black dialect."

Techniques Defended

Ms. Lacks and others defended the teaching technique as "student
centered" and designed to unleash students' creativity. But
administrators charged Ms. Lacks with violating school board policy.
They said she had failed to enforce the student discipline code, which
prohibited profane language at school. The board contended this
included class assignments. ("Expletives Deleted," June 21, 1995.)

After the school board dismissed Ms. Lacks, she sued under state law
and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and was awarded
$750,000 by a federal jury.

But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit overturned the
verdict last year and upheld Ms. Lacks' dismissal. The court said the
school board had a legitimate academic interest in prohibiting the use
of profanity by students.

In their Supreme Court appeal in Lacks v.
Ferguson-Florissant Reorganized School District (Case No.
98-983), lawyers for Ms. Lacks stressed that the teacher did not have
clear notice that her teaching methods violated board policy.

"The jury specifically found that Lacks did not have reasonable
notice that allowing students to use profanity in their creative
writing was prohibited," the appeal said.

In court papers, the district defended its dismissal of Ms.
Lacks.

The school board "found that [Ms. Lacks] committed a willful and
persistent violation of board policy by permitting, if not promoting,
the conduct depicted in [the plays]," the district said.

Nursing Services

In separate action last week, the high court let stand a federal
appeals court ruling that required an Illinois district to pay for the
nursing services for a student whose congenital defects require
dependence on a ventilator.

The case was similar to the one the Supreme Court decided earlier
this month in Cedar Rapids Community School District v.
Garret F. In that 7-2 ruling, the court said federal special
education law requires districts to pay for full-time nursing services
required by students with disabilities to attend school.

In Morton Community Unit School District No. 709 v.
J.M. (No. 98-764), both a federal district court and the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit had ruled that the Illinois
district must pay an estimated $20,000 a year for a nurse to attend
full time to the student.

Vol. 18, Issue 27, Page 34

Published in Print: March 17, 1999, as High Court Turns Down Mo. Teacher's Appeal Over Firing

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